Bishop Spong: Hell isn’t Real, Grow Up Instead of Being Born Again

Serving as almost a direct contradiction to the video I posted yesterday on the Catholic explanation of Hell, today I came upon this 2006 interview with Bishop Shelby Spong, an Episcopalian who is extremely liberal theologically, saying that, in fact, Hell is made up.

That’s not all I liked about this video. Spong rejects the idea of being “born again,” as it infantilizes adult human beings who should own up to who they are:

People don’t need to be born again. They need to grow up. They need to accept their responsibility for themselves and the world.

Spong also takes apart the idea that any religion can be “the one true faith,” or that God can be “contained in any human book.” The faith traditions are man-made, he says, and God is not a Christian or Jew or Muslim. “I honor my tradition, I walk through my tradition,” says Spong, “but I don’t believe my tradition defines God, I think it only points me to God.”